Paleo Challenge: Day 7 {Week 1 Lessons}

It’s the last day of Week 1 on our Paleo Diet, and I won’t bore you with a list of all the leftovers we ate today (or our Lunch cheat meal).  I did get to try out a lot of things I don’t normally eat this week and I learned a ton that will help me out over the next few weeks.  I’ve shared a few of them in the hopes that you’ll be able to incorporate them into your own Paleo venture.

1. Think Ahead About Condiments.  This was an important one for us since Jacob kept reaching for the Ranch dressing we still had in the fridge to top every salad he ate this week.  I was fine with a drizzle of Flaxseed Oil and a squirt of lemon on my salads, but I normally don’t go for creamy dressings.  There are some really great recipes out there to make your own condiments that are Paleo-friendly.  Check online or in Paleo cookbooks.  If you don’t have time to make your own, take a good look at the ingredients list on the package and make sure it doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup or anything you can’t pronounce.

2. Know What Your Family Will Eat.  If your family won’t eat something even after trying it once, don’t make too much of it.  Beets, for example, are not everyone’s favorite.  I found this out one night this week and ended up eating the rest of the beets myself for the next 3 days.  I just finished them on my salad tonight!  If you want to try something new, make a little as a side to see how it goes over with everyone.

3. Don’t Overestimate Consumption.  I assumed that since we wouldn’t have any type of fillers like rice, beans, or pasta, we would eat so much more.  I grossly overestimated the amount of food we would actually go through this week and ended up with a ton of leftovers.  This was with two adults taking leftovers to work for lunch all week and two dinners of leftovers.  I still have a package of chicken in the freezer and a whole head of Romaine lettuce in the crisper that we didn’t get through this week.  So, if you’re not sure how much your family will actually eat on Paleo, try to make meals ahead and freeze them or take your meat out of the freezer a little at a time so it doesn’t go to waste.

4. Your Tastes May Change – Plan Cheat Meals Accordingly.  We’ve been eating real food for many months now, but I never really noticed before this week how much my tastes have changed.  I used to salt everything, and when I ate “healthy” packaged meals (years ago) I would add salt to make this tiny meal taste a little better.  Now, everything tastes too salty and too sweet.  Even my one peanut butter cup that I treated myself to today was too salty for me to finish.  There’s 300mg of sodium listed on the package.  Thinking of the microwave meals I used to eat makes me cringe, with double that amount of sodium in each package.

After today, I’ll be sharing weekly on our progress.  When our four weeks is over, I have a feeling that we’ll incorporate Paleo meals into our meal plan as much as possible if we don’t stick with it completely.  If you want to keep up with our progress over the next month, you can subscribe to my blog using the Subscribe form at the right or follow via Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:

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Sunday FUNday @The Foley Fam